The first AP Top 25 of the season always tells you something, even before a snap is played. This one says the Big Ten is sitting on top of the sport, Texas Tech is not being handed the Big 12, and Indiana’s title defense is getting a colder reception than you might expect.
At the very top, the Big Ten has the early edge over the SEC. Ohio State and Oregon are No. 1 and No. 2, and the league places three teams in the top six.
Even more telling, three Big Ten teams picked up first-place votes while the SEC didn’t get one. That doesn’t erase the SEC’s depth - it still has nine ranked teams and four more receiving votes, compared with eight ranked and two receiving votes for the Big Ten - but the top of the board belongs to the Big Ten right now.
Indiana’s placement is another headline on its own. The reigning national champion comes in at No. 6, which is the lowest preseason AP ranking for a defending champion since Michigan was No. 9 entering 2024, a year that came with a coaching change.
Without that kind of change, the last comparable case was LSU in 2020, which was also slotted at No. 6.
That’s a modest show of respect for a program that has gone 27-2 under Curt Cignetti and finished with an unbeaten national title season in 2025.
The Big 12 picture is less settled than the usual preseason chatter suggests. Texas Tech is No. 12, but BYU is right there at No. 14, and the Cougars were in the mix in 2025 too.
With more experience at quarterback, BYU could push for more. Utah and Houston are also ranked, and that fits a league where the top can shift quickly.
The back half of the poll looks like a familiar preseason habit: brand names getting the benefit of the doubt. Penn State at No. 18 and Tennessee at No. 20 are the clearest examples, but Missouri, Iowa and Utah fit into that same conversation as teams with major questions, and in some cases rough recent seasons. In August, voters often lean on the logo and the safer guess.
What’s missing is just as striking. None of the Group of Six - the American Conference, C-USA, Sun Belt, MAC, Mountain West and Pac-12 - made the preseason Top 25.
That’s another sign of how much roster turnover and portal movement have made these teams tougher to sort out before the games start. Instead of gambling on a program like James Madison to do it again with a changed roster, the poll leaves the entire group out and asks them to earn their way in once the season begins.
In Other News...
Joey McGuire Just Gave Texas Tech A New Edge For 2026
Joey McGuire used a recent podcast appearance to push back on the criticism that followed the Brendan Sorsby gambling controversy, and he didnt sound like a coach eager to move on quietly. Texas Techs head coach suggested that some of the loudest voices, especially in coaching and college sports administration, ought to think twice before piling on, since similar situations could eventually land in their own orbit.
For the Red Raiders, the bigger takeaway may be the tone McGuire has set heading toward the 2026 season. His comments framed the backlash as something his team can carry with it, turning outside noise into a source of motivation as Texas Tech keeps building for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Just Got Its First National Reality Check
The preseason AP Poll gave the Big 12 a familiar kind of attention, and Texas Tech came out of it in the best possible light as the leagues highest-ranked team at No. 12. BYU followed at No. 14, Utah landed at No. 21 and Houston checked in at No. 23, giving the conference four teams in the Top 25 and underscoring how much national respect the league has collected before a snap has been played. Arizona and TCU were close behind just outside the poll, a sign that the Big 12s depth is already being treated like one of the defining storylines of the season.
For Texas Tech, the broader takeaway matters almost as much as the ranking itself. Preseason polls have a way of setting expectations that the league spends the fall trying to confirm or upend, and the Big 12 has increasingly lived in that space where early respect can turn into weekly pressure. If the Red Raiders are going to justify being the conferences highest-ranked team, they will have to do it while navigating a league that already has several teams positioned to make noise in the Top 25 race. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Tech Is Emerging As The Big 12 Team Nobody Wants To Ignore
Texas Tech keeps popping up in the preseason conversation for the kind of reasons that matter in August: a roster that looks deeper, a program that has built real momentum, and a sense that the Red Raiders are no longer just another Big 12 team trying to hang around. In a field where Miami and Louisville also got nods as underrated national names, Texas Tech stands out because the buzz is tied to more than one splashy offseason talking point. It is about a group that has put itself in position to matter when the conference race starts to settle.
That is what makes the Red Raiders so interesting as the season approaches. The preseason rankings only tell part of the story, but Texas Tech is being framed as the kind of team that can move from overlooked to unavoidable if the early returns match the promise. The next question is whether that momentum can turn into the sort of run that puts the Big 12 title picture, and maybe even the College Football Playoff conversation, within reach. [Read more 🡒]